The Navy now has its first female graduate to have successfully completed a special warfare training course to become a Naval Special Warfare combatant-craft crewman (SWCC).
SWCC are boat operators who move Navy SEALs and other personnel, collect information about installations from enemy military and can take part in direct action raids against “enemy shipping and waterborne traffic,” according to the Navy’s website.
The sailor graduated and received her pin on Thursday along with 16 others. Officials from the military branch did not provide any details on her identity, which The Associated Press says is the standard military policy for those involved in the special operations forces.
“Becoming the first woman to graduate from a Naval Special Warfare training pipeline is an extraordinary accomplishment, and we are incredibly proud of our teammate,” said Rear Adm. H. W. Howard, commander of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command said in a statement. “Like her fellow operators, she demonstrated the character, cognitive and leadership attributes required to join our force.”
She will now go to one of three special boat teams of the Naval Special Warfare’s, the AP reported.
The intensive training course, which lasts 37 weeks, follows an initial recruit boot camp in the Navy. Two months are spent doing a preparatory course, followed by an orientation that lasts three weeks and then finally seven weeks where sailors learn water and navigation skills, according to the AP.
The last three days of that seven-week stretch is dubbed “The Tour,” which is a physically and mentally demanding period that tests sailors’ stamina and strength. The AP notes that it’s the aspect of the training where sailors tend to fail the most.
Historically, around 35 percent of SWCC candidates make it to graduation, the Navy noted.